John Simon to Speak in Tribute to Ingmar Bergman

Home , Cries and Whispers, Harriet Andersson, Sawdust and Tinsel, Smiles of a Summer Night, Winter Light

NO. 146 FOR "he Museum of Modern Art ^MEDIATE RELEASE 11 West 53 Street, New York, N.Y. 10019 Tel. 956-6100 Cable: Modemart

JOHN SIMON TO SPEAK AT MUSEUM TRIBUTE TO INGMAR BERGMAN

John Simon, film and drama critic, author of the recently published book

"Ingmar Bergman Directs," will be the guest speaker at The Museum of Modern

Art, Thursday, January 18, 8:00 P.M., when Bergman's 1962 film "Winter Light"

will be shown as part of a mini-retrospective of three films by the Swedish director.

Mr. Simon's book, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, includes an inter

view with the filmmaker, more than 400 photographs, and comprehensive analyses

of four Bergman films. Three of those films — "The Naked Night," "Smiles of a

Summer Night," and "Winter Light" — will be shown in the Museum's tribute to

Bergman, whose newest film, "Cries and Whispers," showing at Cinema I, has just

been named best film of 1972 by the New York Film Critics.

"Ingmar Bergman is, in my most carefully considered opinion, the greatest film

maker the world has seen so far," writes Mr. Simon, referring to film as a totally

visual and totally aural medium and claiming that in this ambidextrousness lies its

glory. "Now though a filmmaker who masters the visual possibilities of cinema is

to be admired, the true lord of the medium is he who controls equally sight and sound...

who can manipulate the two in such a way that they reinforce each other and perform

in unison and harmony... at the film-maker's beck. Bergman seems to be the only

absolute master to date in both modes."

The schedule of Bergman films to be shown at the Museum January 18 follows-.

2:00 ... THE NAKED NIGHT; SAWDUST AND TINSEL. 1953. With Harriet Andersson, Ake Gronberg. English titles. 83 min. (Janus Films) 5:30...SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT. 1955. With Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson. English titles. 108 min. (Janus Films) 8:00... WINTER LIGHT. 1962. With Ingrid Thuiin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max von Sydow, Gunnel Lindbloom. English titles. 80 min. (Janus Films) ************************************************************ Additional information available from Lillian Gerard, Special Projects Coordinator, and Mark Segal, Assistant, Department of Public Information, The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, New York 10019. Phone: (212) 956- 7296.